The difference between the chiropractic and the medical approaches to health care is never more clear than with the treatment of radiculopathy.

The medical approach entails their version of “conservative” treatment, including pain medications, prolonged spinal injections, or perhaps a prescription for physical therapy. Then, if their conservative treatment does not alleviate the pain, decompressive surgery, such as laminectomy and/or discectomy/microdiscectomy, may be recommended.

Chiropractors aptly describe radiculopathy as “nerve root irritation”, and the chiropractic approach for resolution is straightforward. If you have a rock in your shoe, and your foot hurts… do you need physical therapy, medications, or spinal injections? NO!!! You need your doctor (who is supposed to be the Sherlock Holmes of illness) to determine the CAUSE of the nerve root irritation (the rock), and to remove that obstacle from your path, so you can return to health.

Review the rest of this page to explore the real differences between these 2 approaches to health care, and the difference in their success rates. The conclusions will surprise you!

Have you ever cracked your knuckles? There is a cracking sound that is very familiar to the Chiropractor and their patients. This cracking sound is generated by a cavitation mechanism. What is a cavitation mechanism, you ask. When a joint is opened up, fluid rapidly fills the void with a popping sound. In scientific terms they say that the audible release is caused by cavitation process whereby a sudden decrease in intracapsular pressure causes dissolved gases in the synovial fluid to be released into the joint cavity. Once this occurs the joint space is increased by the volume of fluid introduced into the area. More space, more freedom of movement.

Good news, for those who like cracking your knuckles, this will not cause arthritis. They did a simple research project in which they went to a nursing home and asked the residents two questions.

1.) Who cracks their knuckles?
2.) Who has arthritis in the hands?

It was found that those who crack their knuckles has significant decrease in knuckle joint arthritis than those who did not. The reasons were determined to be that the new fluid introduced into the joints brought nutrients and increase of joint space. Both of these were beneficial to the health of the joint. That is why it is said that regular Chiropractic treatments keep, improve, and restore the joint health.

One of the latest studies came up with another reason for the sound. The elastic recoil of the synovial capsule is what generated the sound. But because the sudden joint distraction during an adjustment occurs quickly it is more likely that the stretch reflexes in the per articular muscles twang like a guitar string.

So whatever the reason is for the sound, it is all good for the joint. Now before you go expecting the sound on ever adjustment, let me tell you that not every joint mobilized will produce the sound. That doesn’t mean the adjustment didn’t have its desired effect. It is like cracking your knuckles, Not every time and every joints makes an audible pop when you crack it. So it is the same with professional adjusting to the joints in the rest of your body.

Vitamin C is important for the secretion of carnitine, a compound that helps body convert fat into energy. Besides, it also helps block cortisol, a hormone that’s secreted by the body when under stress. Spike in cortisol levels is the main reason for abdominal fat.

If you think by drinking diet or sugar-free sodas that you are helping with the weight loss, you are doing the opposite. But what is worse is that the chemical in those diet sodas is poison. In a nutshell, the Aspartame in the diet soda will literally help you die a slow and miserable death.

If it says ‘SUGAR FREE’ on the label, drop the product with a reviling “ewwww!!!!” and RUN.. Do not even give it another consideration. Leave it on the store floor. Understand this, in the keynote address by the EPA, it was announced that in the United States in 2001 there is an epidemic of multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus. Research has shown that when asked many tell of their efforts to lose weight started with switching to “diet” sodas. Did you know that airplane pilots are not allowed to consume any aspartame products…. EVER!!!

Aspartame is so dangerous that when the temperature of the sweetener exceeds 86 degrees F, the wood alcohol in ASPARTAME converts to formaldehyde then to formic acid which causes metabolic acidosis. Formic acid is the poison found in the sting of fire ants. The methanol toxicity mimics multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus. But that is not all it does.

Many people were being diagnosed in error. Although multiple sclerosis is not a death sentence, Methanol toxicity is!

Systemic lupus has become almost as rampant as multiple sclerosis, especially with the Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi drinkers. People do not know that the Aspartame is the culprit. Cases where vision loss returned and hearing loss improved markedly along with the symptoms of systemic lupus and multiple sclerosis once they get off of the diet sodas.

If you consuming aspartame in any of the array of products out on the market like Nutra Sweet, Equal, Spoonful, almost all chewing gums, etc and you suffer from fibromyalgia symptoms, spasms, shooting, pains, numbness in your legs, cramps, vertigo, dizziness, headaches, tinnitus, joint pain, unexplainable depression, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, blurred vision, or memory loss you probably have aspartame poisoning.

Aspartame passes the blood/brain barrier where it destroys the neurons of the brain causing various levels of brain damage, Seizures, Depression, Manic depression, Panic attacks, Uncontrollable anger and rage. Documentation and research and clinical observation have shown that thousands of children diagnosed with ADD and ADHD have had complete turnarounds in their behavior when aspartame has been removed from their diet.

Now you are thinking, ok, I have these symptoms and I can quit drinking sodas, read labels to make sure I am not consuming aspartame, but is my conditions reversible? Yes! First make sure you have stopped drinking diet sodas and are very alert for Aspartame on food labels. I hate reading labels, but I do it all the time with any packaged foods now. Many products are fortified with it. It is crazy where you can run across the aspartame chemical. Eliminate aspartame from your diet. I can not stress this enough. It causes a toxic buildup of formaldehyde and DKP in the body. There is a detox program in another blog I did earlier which can help.

Eat your vegetables. Carrots are known absorbents of toxins including radiation. Other vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and brussels sprouts are good cleaners. Take dandelion and milk thistle during the detox process. You can read about it in my detox blog as this part of the detox is good for the liver. Ingest golden seal and echinacea to boost your immune system. Echinacea is popular for protection against colds.

Wait 60 days and see if your symptoms improve. If they don’t, you may need to eliminate other toxins from your body, but you should consult your doctor first.

I would like you to also know that Diet soda is not a diet product. It is a chemically altered, multiple sodium (salt) and aspartame jacked product that will actually makes you crave more carbohydrates, what I call the munchie syndrome. And you wonder why you continue to not lose weight but gain weight.

Remember how I mentioned earlier that aspartame converts to formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is stored in the fat cells, particularly in the hips and thighs. Formaldehyde is an absolute toxin and is used primarily to preserve tissue specimens and is used in the morgue to preserve dead bodies. Not something you want to store in your live body.

Aspartame is especially dangerous for diabetics. If you are a diabetic with retinopathy, it could be because of the aspartame in your products you consume and the retinopathy is an aspartame poisoning. Aspartame drives the blood sugar out of control. Diabetics can also suffer acute memory loss because the aspartic acid and the phenylalanine are neurotoxins.

Warning… it can cause birth defects, i.e. mental retardation, if taken at the time of conception and during early pregnancy. Children are especially at risk for neurological disorders and should never be given artificial sweeteners. There are many different case histories to relate of children suffering grand mal seizures, other neurological disturbances, in fact, a pandemic of neurological diseases are directly caused by the use of this deadly poison.

Monsanto’s patent on Aspartame has expired. Now the flood gates are open for many more products on the market to contain this deadly chemical.

Senator Howard Metzenbaum wrote and presented a bill that would require label warnings on products containing Aspartame, especially for pregnant women, children and infants. The bill would also more institute independent studies on the known dangers and the problems existing in the general population regarding seizures, changes in brain chemistry, neurological changes and behavioural symptoms.
The bill was killed.

Have you ever been in a medical doctor’s office where they did a blood pressure test on your ankle? Probably not. It is a simple test of blood pressure in the ankle that may help gauge heart disease risk for adults. The U.S. government-appointed panel has not approved the idea because as they say “there’s not enough evidence to recommend it for routine checks.”

“The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said it’s unclear whether using the “ankle brachial index” to screen for peripheral artery disease (PAD) and assess the risk of heart disease is beneficial in people with no symptoms. “We recognize this is a common problem and PAD afflicts many Americans,” said task force co-vice chair Dr. Albert Siu. “And we recognize it’s a common cardiovascular risk factor, but we don’t know, in the absence of symptoms, whether this test is useful or not.” Remember that this doesn’t apply to people who are already showing the symptoms of peripheral artery disease.

Peripheral artery disease is a narrowing of the arteries in the pelvis and legs, and like heart disease, restricts the blood supply to the heart. The condition, which becomes more common with age, often goes undiagnosed and people who have it face four to five times more risk of heart attack or stroke, according to the American Heart Association website.

The most common symptoms are cramping, pain or tiredness in the leg or hip muscles while walking or climbing stairs. Typically, this pain goes away with rest and returns when walking again. Since my last posting on cramping, you can consider this a continuation blog.

Peripheral artery disease is most often diagnosed with the ankle brachial index, which compares the blood pressure in the feet with the blood pressure in the arms. In healthy people, the ankle pressure is at least 90 percent of arm pressure, but in PAD it may be less than 50 percent, according to the heart association.

One reason why the government panel is taking a serious look at screening for peripheral artery disease is because of the fact it could easily be a early warning sign of a cardiovascular event in the making. Our office recommends screening and provides the standard ultrasound testing on site for those who may be susceptible or are predispositioned for this disorder. Awareness of this early stage warning sign offers the opportunity to reverse the trend towards a cardiovascular event before it happens.

Peripheral artery disease is usually treated by medical physicians with blood pressure medications and cholesterol-lowering drugs. Some patients may also be treated with a minimally invasive treatment or surgery to open their narrow arteries. Understand that left untreated, peripheral artery can lead to gangrene and amputation. The condition affects about 8 million Americans, according to the heart association.

Magnesium is good for diseases of the heart and blood vessels including chest pain, irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, high levels of “bad” cholesterol called low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, low levels of “good” cholesterol called high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, heart valve disease (mitral valve prolapse), and heart attack. I often recommend a magnesium chelate formula for my patients because of the faster results. Magnesium Chelate is one of the fastest absorbing and utilized forms of magnesium available on the market. Patients have noticed a difference within the first half hour of taking this supplement for relief of their symptoms.

Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue has been poorly understood, poorly diagnosed, and poorly treated because of the lack of understanding. I am going to approach this health issue from a different perspective. Something is inflaming and causing pain throughout the body. Let’s take a serious look at what is going on, breaking it down, step by step.

Let’s look at the lack of energy aspect for a moment. In the science world, the body’s energy is called ATP. This little ATP energy packet is produced in every cell of the body. To be specific it is produced in the mitochondria portion of the cell. The mitochondrial has been called the manufacture plant of the human cells. The assembly plant within this manufacture plant is called the Krebs Cycle. Science research has noted that there is a breakdown in the Krebs Cycle which stops the production of ATP, your energy. At a certain point in the Krebs Cycle, the researchers have found where this breakdown occurs. It is where the malic acid is introduced into the mix to create the ATP energy packet.

Recently, Malic Acid as a nutritional supplement has been used to stimulate the Kreb cycle production of ATP successfully. That is good news for Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgic patients. For the chronic fatigue aspect of fibromyalgia patients, this deficiency has been traced back to the incomplete production and activity in the Krebs cycle. The key to the pain aspect is the inability of pyruvic acid to enter into the cycle for energy production and is left in the cells to create that burning sensation. And you wondered why you hurt all over. By shutting down the second half of the Krebs cycle, a buildup of lactic acid occurs. Lactic acid also creates a burning sensation which any athlete can attest to after a work out. It will continue to burn until the body removes it from the cell. With acidification of the tissues comes a localized decrease in oxygenation of the tissues and subsequent symptoms that Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia patients are familiar with.

Malic acid has been reported to also be beneficial in supporting stress, tender points, pain, persistent fatigue, muscular pain, arthritic-like symptoms without any evidence like on x-ray, and healthy people who are recovering from exercise programs. Now to get into more details on how this all works to produce that much needed ATP in the body. Glucose provides fuel for the body. The two ways that the body produces ATP energy.

First and fastest, is a process called glycolysis. This is the breakdown of glucose to pyruvic acid and also lactic acid. Pyruvic acid is normally converted to energy in the presence of oxygen, carbon dioxide and water. Then there is the way through the Krebs cycle, the site of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production. Here are the places where the optimal function can not be achieved.

First the whole process is dependent on the amount of glucose available. Fructose that is manufactured from corn to high fructose that is often found in manufactured products can not be properly metabolized and is sent to the fat cells to be stored. And you wondered why you keep getting fatter and fatter. THe kind of glucose you want comes from regular unprocessed goods, whether they be fruit or vegetables. The body can utilize these quickly and easily into the digestive system, through the blood stream and into the cells where the mitochondria will convert it to the kind of energy the body can use.

Another factor is the amount of oxygen that gets to the muscles and cells. So breathe deeply, filling your lungs with good clean fresh air, and the way to do that is to learn to breathe properly. Most people are shallow breathers without really knowing it. Unless you have been professionally taught how to breathe in singing classes, chances are you are not using all of your lungs to their full potential. Take this little test. Use your stomach muscle to pull air down into the bottom of your lungs, then use those same stomach muscle to push all the stale air out of your lungs. If you would do this exercise even two to three times, minimum, twice a day, do it first thing in the morning and just before going to bed and you will benefit. It is even better if you go outside and take in some fresh air when you do this. Your body will gain even more benefit from the fresh air. Of course, if you train yourself to breath like this normally, the more oxygen into the system the healthier you will be.

Next is the delivery of oxygen to the muscle. Best way to get oxygen to the muscle is to do the proper breathing while you are walking. This greatly increases the chances of getting the rich oxygenated blood to the cells. It is good to have the blood pumping through the body bringing the rich oxygenated blood to the cells, and removing the toxic wastes from the cells.

Then we get into the rate of enzyme function ability of the mitochondria in the cells to process. Because of the junk food that we consume has gotten into the Kreb Cycle and clogged up the site for Malic Acid production, supplementing with Malic Acid aids in completing the ATP production where the production breakdown is.

Back to the first way which I mentioned earlier on the two ways energy is made. Because energy can be produced quickly by the glycolytic pathway, it is usually the first chosen. But with the accumulation of lactic acid in tissues and the depletion of glycogen stores because of poor eating habits it runs poor second in the production of ATP.

Quick summary review, it has been found that Malic Acid acts as a catalyst to the Krebs cycle to produce energy from the burning of pyruvic acid, without the associated buildup of lactic acid. That is good news, because that means you hurt less. No acid in the cells to create that painful burning sensation. In research studies, it has been shown that Malic Acid, when given with magnesium, resulted in a reduction in tender points of 41 percent after four weeks and 76.5 percent after eight weeks. The good news is that in some cases, as little as 48 hours was needed for noticeable improvement. That is why I recommending Malic Acid with Magnesium for Chronic Fatigue and / or Fibromyalgia.

Pain comes in a wide variety of forms, including aches, soreness, tenderness, throbbing, burning, stabbing and other descriptions that a patient uses to try and describe the sensations that they are experiencing. It is the most common symptom that sends a patient to the office seeking relief.

The acute pain is an unpleasant experience that is primarily associated with a recent injury. The details that the patient gives when describing the circumstances that caused the injury and the place and type of pain they are having to their doctor goes a long way towards a proper diagnosis . In taking the history, your doctor will try to learn the chronology, nature, aggravating and alleviating factors that influence the pain.

When pain becomes chronic, the accumulation of factors have now increase with many added influences like anxiety, depression, social, economic and medication. Because of the psychic or emotional factors influence the pain threshold, so also will they influence the speed of healing.

I have found that there are two major factors in the healing process. It often has to do with the type of people they are. If a person is an “A” type of person, they are more apt to being worriers, over self analyzing, and have troubles relaxing. If a person is a “B” type of person, they are more apt to let troubles be, looking forward, and are more relaxed about what life throws their way. Everyone is more or less of both types. The healing response is normally faster for the “B” type of person.

Inflammation is one of the greatest reasons why the body does not respond to treatment. The more chronic the condition, the more likely there is wide spread inflammation in the system. One of the best nutritional treatments I have found to give very quick relief and decrease the amount of inflammation in the system is NutriWest TLM

Please check your blind spot. As you know, with driving the ability to see what is in the blind spot could be a matter of life or death. A blind spot in a vehicle is an area around the vehicle that cannot be directly observed by the driver while at the controls, under existing circumstances.

So take this little test. Turn your head to look over the shoulder without your eyes going to the corners or you twisting your torso. The blind spot size depends on a lot of different factors but one of the important factor is the ability to freely move the neck within the 90 degrees either to the right or left of facing forward. If you have less than 90 degrees of functional neck rotation, the size of your blind spot will increase. Increased blind spot increases the chances of not seeing the car that is at your back panel of your vehicle when you are going to change lanes, for example.

Everyone knows that age and health have a bearing on how far a person can turn their heads. Statistics say that everyone will stiffen with age to the point that approximately one half of the range of motion can be last. I disagree. In my practice of over twenty years, I have seen many who have lost their range of motion regain it in spite of their age. So if you are thinking that you are just getting old and that is the way things are. Think again. It could be that you are just “stoved up” and need an adjustment on those joints to get them moving again.

A person is physically qualified to drive a commercial motor vehicle if that person has a field of vision of at least 70 degrees in the horizontal meridian in each eye. That is one of the requirements to pass to receive a commercial license. But I believe that it would save a lot of vehicle side swipes, if drivers were also tested on their range of motion in the neck to determine their ability to see more in the blind spot region.

In many states, central visual acuity and peripheral vision are routinely tested by the Department of Motor Vehicles when a license is renewed. The older you get, the more important it is for older people renewing their license to have good peripheral vision. . For example, the incidence of crashes is 6 times higher when useful field of view is reduced by > 40%. One of the ways is to increase the range of motion.

Many of my patients have commented on the fact that along with the increased range of motion, there is a decrease joint ache, pain, headaches or muscle spasms. The benefits of proper joint motion can only be appreciate by those who have lost the range of motion and then regained it. They have often commented that they feel young again.